ed-particularly theology. Few, perhaps, could surpass him in sermonizing, and in preparing or dictating skeletons of sermons. Possessing a thoroughly disciplined and very accurate mind, and apparently at home in every department of the Holy Scriptures -conversant with the various scopes of the sacred authors, and the meaning to be attached to the words they used-it was comparatively an easy thing for him to dictate a good skeleton from the impulse of the occasion. If a skeleton prepared and read by a student did not please him, he would remodel it at once; and if it were too far out of the way, he would lay it aside altogether, and dictate another for him at the time. It was the custom of the class to write down the skeletons thus dictated, and in this way many of them have been preserved. To his class he always seemed well prepared on the recitation, and perfectly at home on all the subjects claiming attention. He "studied to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." On subjects connected with personal piety he would frequently speak to the students, and embraced every fitting opportunity to give them counsel, and to urge upon them the importance of a prayerful and holy life.

Dr. MAYER was known as a scholar, writer, and author. He was a close and earnest student; a deep and correct thinker; a ripe and finished theological scholar, and a clear and extensive writer. For a long time, he edited, with great acceptance, the MAGAZINE and MESSENGER of the German Reformed Church, and occasionally furnished very ably written articles for some of the leading theological reviews at the North. Among his published works are those on the Sin against the Holy Ghost, and Lectures on Scriptural Subjects; and among his unpublished manuscripts there is an extensive treatise on Theology, another on Hermeneutics and Exegesis, and his History of the German Reformed Church, the first volume of which is now given to the public.

But it is peculiarly pleasant to contemplate Dr. MAYER in the light of a CHRISTIAN. In early life he sought and found the Saviour. He entered into a solemn covenant with the Lord, to obey his will and to be his faithful and willing servant for ever, He unalterably dedicated himself to his service, and throughout life he was a most consistent and exemplary Christian. Free from all ostentation and pride, from all vanity and lightness of manner, he walked humbly and prayerfully before the Lord, and endeavored to perfect holiness in the fear of God. During an intimate acquaintance with him of eighteen years, the writer

never knew him to indulge in any light-mindedness, or in any trifling behaviour whatever. He was indeed remarkable for his correct Christian deportment, and for his holy walk and conversation. Religion with him was not merely a name; it entered deeply into all his thoughts and feelings-subdued and controlled his will swayed his judgment, and gave tone and character to all his words and actions. His piety was of a serious, modest, retiring character,-yet withal it was earnest and decided. He seemed to live in God and God in him. The doctrines of grace, of free grace, were always delightfully precious doctrines to him, and he loved to speak about them and to dwell upon them. The righteousness of Christ was his righteousness. He felt that Jesus had died for him, and could truly say

"Jesus, my Shepherd, Husband, Friend,
My Prophet, Priest, and King,

My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring."

With St. Paul, he gloried in the cross of Christ, and in that only.

In public life, Dr. MAYER was prominent, and shared largely in the respect and confidence of all who knew him. He was honored again and again with important appointments and stations, and for many years was a leading member of the Synod of his Church. He had great influence in the Church, and he did not fail to exert it in behalf of her institutions, and in the promotion of her best interests. To the cause of Christ, in general, he was strongly attached; and the friends of religion everywhere found in him a ready and able advocate of all good things. With a mind deeply imbued with the spirit of his divine Lord, and a heart warmed and swayed by his love, he took an active part in promoting genuine revivals of religion, and in building up the interests of Christ's kingdom in the world. In all his private relations, also, he exhibited those virtues and graces which adorn the Christian character and life.

As to his personal appearance, Dr. MAYER was of medium size. He did not measure more than five feet eight inches in height, and his frame was slender and erect. His forehead was very high, and indicated great intellectual strength. His eye was keen and penetrating, and his whole appearance commanded reverence and respect. In his dress, he was plain and very neat. His utterance was easy, but not rapid, and his gait rather slow. He was very regular in his habits, and remarkably syste

matic and precise in what he did. In all things he was a man of order, and observed great regularity and punctuality in all his business transactions. In his intercourse with others, he was gentlemanly and kind. His manners were always pleasant and agreeable, though somewhat reserved in the company of strang.

ers.

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Dr. MAYER was twice married; the first time, during his residence at Shepherdstown; the second time, during his residence at Carlisle. By his first marriage he had six children, three of whom are living, and one of them, a son, JOHN L. MAYER, Esq., is an eminent lawyer, in York. By his second marriage he had no children. His first wife was ČATHARINE LINE, the daughter of the late JOHN LINE, of Shepherdstown; and his second wife was MARY SMITH, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who survives him.

His Illness and Death.

Dr. MAYER did not enjoy good health for many years. He was always, indeed, more or less feeble in bodily vigor; and yet, as a preacher, pastor, professor, and author, he accomplished a great deal. Like BAXTER and others, affliction did not prevent him from being abundant in labors. But, for the last several years of his life, he was not able to accomplish much, on account of his fast-declining health. During the summer of 1849, the dysentery prevailed in York, in the form of an epidemic, and among others whom it attacked was the subject of this notice. The disease, from the first, was violent, baffling the best medical skill, and leaving little or no hope for his recovery. Kind friends telegraphed the writer of his illness, and he hastened to his bedside, to bid him a last adieu. He found him in fierce conflict with the last enemy, and rapidly sinking into his cold embrace. The power of sight, of hearing, and of utterance had failed him, and his physicians said he could not survive till morning. His pulse beat fainter and fainter; and, ere the sun arose, the great and good man had passed away. That which remained was cold and mortal. He died, surrounded by his family and friends, on the 25th of August, 1849, aged sixtysix years, four months, and twenty nine days. On Monday afternoon, the 27th of August, his remains were followed to the grave by a large concourse of people, and were interred in the cemetery adjoining the Reformed Church in York, and near the grave of the lamented CARES. An address was delivered,

on the mournful occasion, by the writer, and prayer offered by the Rev. Mr. EMERSON, of the Presbyterian Church. The announcement of the death of one so well and so favorably known awakened feelings of deep sorrow and profound regret throughout the whole Church. All felt that a great, and good, and very useful man in Israel had fallen, and that, too, before some of his most important labors on earth were finished. The Master called him home much sooner than the Church had hoped. But even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Baltimore, Md.

E. H.

THE ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.

A Treatise upon Moral Philosophy and Practice. By WILLIAM ADAMS, S. T. P., Presbyter of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Wisconsin. Philadelphia: H. Hooker. 1850. Pp. 379, 8vo.

THIS book is eminently entitled to respect. The author belongs to the far West; having charge of the Episcopal Seminary at Nashotah in Wisconsin, an institution founded in missionary zeal and full of promise, as it would seem, for the future, but in the bosom still of the wilderness and far removed from the usual resources of literature and science. The work however is one that would do honor to the oldest and best endowed seat of learning in the country. It carries with it indeed no particular array of authorities, no imposing apparatus of outward scholarship; but it is still evidently the product of very respectable learning throughout, and of this in its best form, the reading and study of other days incorporated by earnest and profound reflection into the very substance and life of the mind itself. Mr. Adams has carried with him to his present retreat, what is of more account than all libraries, the capital of a full European education, with resolution and power to use it vigorously for spiritual ends in the way of private study. He shows himself in this view a thinker, truly worthy of the name and having some right to be listened to with respect. He is not the mere echo on the one hand of what has been spoken or written by othars; his thoughts are the living fruit of his own intellectual and moral life; but neither on the other hand does he pretend to spin them with pure originality out of his separate brain, as though the worth of knowledge depended on its being reduced

as much as possible to the character of insulated subjectivity and particular opinion. There are, we all know, cases of such pedantic affectation, where it is pretended, in the sphere particularly of mental and moral science, to ignore and forget, (if we may speak of forgetting what has never been known,) all that others have brought to pass, and to fall in on the resources of purely private thought and speculation, for the solution of all questions and problems in a perfectly independent and original way; under the imagination that such a course discovers more than ordinary intellectual vigor, and is adapted for this reason to command attention and reverential respect. But no such upstart self-born science can ever be of any truly solid and enduring growth. The book before us is of quite a different character. It bears the impress of original thought on every page, beyond most books that have appeared in this country; but it is the originality of ripe previous culture, which is neither self-born nor upstart, but carries with it the authority that rightfully pertains to genuine learning.

ics.

As its title imports, the work is devoted to the interest of EthIts general purpose and drift however are not at once clear, either from the title or preface or first few chapters. This forms indeed a serious bar at the beginning to the interest of the book, even for a thoughtful reader prepared to enter earnestly into the subject of which it treats; and is likely of course to stand still more in the way of its popularity, with those whose reigning temper is not of such earnest cast. It requires something of an effort of patience and attention, to become fairly and properly introduced to the object which the author has in view, so as to move along with him freely in the progress of his discussion. Such patience and attention however are sure to be rewarded in the end, with a full compensation for all their cost. The scope and purpose of the work gradually become clear, interest is enlisted more and more in the subject for its own sake, and the result can hardly fail to be for any earnest reader a wholesome discipline of the heart as well as a true benefit for the understanding.

All individual existence, the author tells us in his preface, is conditioned by two elements, first nature and secondly position -this last including all the relations, in the midst of which and by means of which it fulfils its destiny. To extend this principle upward to the Life of Man, to apply it to his Moral Being, is the object here in hand. "We take it for granted herein," he says, "that man has a moral nature and constitution, as well as an animal and intellectual being; and that to man as a moral